Urbana residents vote Thursday on park bonds
By ROB PRICE THE COURIERADVOCATE

HAMMONDSPORT - Urbana residents vote Thursday on a $500,000 bond issue that if passed would allow the town to purchase nearly seven acres of lakefront land for a public park.

Polls are open from noon to 8 p.m. in the municipal building on Lake Street.

The vote is the latest chapter in a years-long controversy that has involved eminent domain proceedings against a local resident, voters' rejection of a $1.35 million bond issue, and a mysterious $500,000 donation from an anonymous resident of California.

Urbana officials in 1999 initiated eminent domain proceedings against landowner Michael Doyle to buy a 11-acre beachfront lot and convert it into a public park. That effort was abandoned, however, when voters in 2005 defeated a $1.35 million bond proposition that would have financed the acquisition.

Shortly after the bond vote, a grassroots effort to raise funds for the purchase of the property received an anonymous $500,000 contribution contingent on matching local funds.

Thursday's vote would provide those funds for the purchase of a smaller lot that Doyle now is willing to sell to the town. Under his agreement with the municipality, he would keep a smaller piece of beachfront property adjacent to his Garrett's Landing condominium development.

The town's purchase agreement with Doyle also includes the municipality's removal of its highway garage, located at the corner of Liberty and Mill Street. Urbana residents will vote on that element of the plan in a separate resolution Thursday.